President Donald Trump delivers remarks as he host a bipartisan congressional members in the White House in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. On Thursday, his administration announced it would extend a waiver on nuclear sanctions against Iran, but also imposed new sanctions unrelated to the 2015 nuclear deal. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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Sept. 14 (UPI) -- The Trump administration temporarily waived sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear program Thursday but imposed new non-nuclear-related sanctions on 11 companies and individuals allegedly linked to the country's ballistic missile and cyberattack programs.
Imposing new sanctions while extending waivers on sanctions related to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the nuclear deal, was described by U.S. officials as a "holding action" until President Donald Trump decides next month whether Iran is fully complying with the deal, The Washington Post reported.
Senior administration officials said the move was meant to signal a willingness to confront Iran over behavior it finds to be out of sync with the deal, despite the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. group assigned to monitor the deal, indicating that Iran has been in compliance.
"Waiving some of those sanctions should not be seen as an indication of President Trump or his administration's position on the [nuclear deal], nor is the waiver giving the Iranian regime a pass on its broad range of malign behavior," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department said the new sanctions unrelated to the nuclear deal will be imposed on the Sadid Caran Saba Engineering Company for allegedly proliferating activities related to Iran's ballistic missile program; the Khors Aircompany and Dart Airlines for providing material support to Caspian Airlines, which the United States accuses of helping the Iranian National Guard transport "personnel and illicit material, including weapons, from Iran to Syria;" and several individuals associated with Iranian computer security company ITSec Team for "denial of service attacks against at least nine large U.S. financial institutions, including top U.S. banks and U.S. stock exchanges."
"Treasury will continue to take strong actions to counter Iran's provocations, including support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -Qods Force and terrorist extremists, the ongoing campaign of violence in Syria, and cyber-attacks meant to destabilize the U.S. financial system," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
